Bhopal, Apr 24 (IANS): Amid the nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus scare in the country, Madhya Pradesh has so far procured as much as 10.5 lakh tonnes of wheat as against a target of 110 lakh tonnes this season. Last year, the target was 96 lakh tonnes.

The procurement process has been followed along with all necessary precautions like sanitisation of agricultural markets, wearing of face masks, use of sanitisers, and social distancing etc.

There are 289 farmer cooperatives in Madhya Pradesh, whose 1.81 lakh members will sell 11 lakh tonnes of wheat this season, which will then be stored in 25 silo bags and steel silos with a total storage capacity of 10.80 lakh tonnes.

Such scientific storage of crop saves it from the vagaries of weather.

The state's Housing and Logistics Corporation has built steel silos with capacities of 50K tonnes each in private-public participation mode in Bhopal, Sehore, Vidisha, Hoshangabad, Nagore, Satna, Harda, Ujjain and Devas.

Similarly, silo bags with a total storage capacity of 6.30 lakh tonnes have been set up in 16 other places in Madhya Pradesh.

Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs Chief Secretary Shivshankar Shukla said this system of storage had minimised human involvement in storage, which also does not need any insecticides.

A farmer takes his produce in bulk in either tractor-trolleys or trucks, gets the load weighed and the crops is then transferred to the silos with a hydraulic system, minimising any human involvement which was very important in view of the coronavirus spread in the country.